CEO cites importance of employee feedback for tangible benefits that 'drive the most value'
In the wake of growing offerings for health and wellbeing programmes across workplaces, one CEO is offering tips for employers on what makes a great programme that can truly benefit the workforce.
"I think what makes a great health and wellbeing programme for an organisation is something that provides a tangible benefit to the employees," Nic Blair, CEO of Midnight Health, told HRD.
This programme should also be widely adopted by the organisation.
"I think there are many health and wellbeing programmes that don't do that," he said, adding that it could spell the end for a benefit if it's not really achieving its main function.
"So, it's really important when you're evaluating health and wellbeing programmes that you get feedback from employees throughout the use of that programme to ensure that they're actually seeing tangible benefits at the end of it – and that will drive the most value," he said.
Listening to employees, data
According to Blair, listening to employees is one of the "best things" to do to align benefit offerings with the workforce's needs.
"At Midnight Health, we conduct surveys internally that we use to help identify and determine the wellness benefits that we're going to provide for staff and that not only helps us to identify new initiatives that they're going to see value in, but sometimes it also means that we might get rid of initiatives that employees aren't valuing or utilising," he said.
"We listen to our staff on a pretty regular basis and survey them and use that information to help inform the decisions that we make."
He also highlighted the importance of leveraging the data they garner from the HubPass programme, which is under the Midnight Health brand.
"We can actually use that to identify and inform us in the business about the kind of key lifestyle and risk factors affecting our employees that we might be able to then target with certain wellness initiatives."
Offering primary care access
HubPass is one of Midnight Health's offered health and wellness benefits to employees, in addition to a wellness week off. According to the CEO, they offered the benefit amid a "gap" in Australia when it comes to access to primary care.
"Employees, and Australians in general, are reaching the point where the cost of living is creating challenges for them – with access to care and the cost of care increasing – and the time it takes to get consults being a challenge as well. So, we feel like we can play a critical role in that," Blair said.
Through HubPass, employers can give employees access to unlimited telehealth consultations, prescriptions, medical certificates, and access to discounts on medications, pharmacy products, with free shipping for those products as well.
hub.health, a brand under Midnight Health, is one of the sponsors of the upcoming Australian HR Awards, particularly for the Best Health and Wellbeing Programme.
"Becoming a partner for the HR rewards is great way for us to get in front of the key people representing organisations - from HR and the people and culture perspective - and align ourselves with organisations that have shared values with us as well," Blair said.
